


A Salty Catch

by JinxedAmbitions



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Alternate Universe- Mermaids, Kylo is Trying his Best, M/M, Merman Hux, Romantic Comedy, Summer Romance, Surfer Kylo, grumpy Hux, inappropriate use of bathtubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-05 16:39:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxedAmbitions/pseuds/JinxedAmbitions
Summary: Kylo thought he was getting away for a weekend of surfing and relaxation.  However, when a drowned man washes up on the shore after a run in with a shark, things get a bit strange.  The good news is the man is still breathing.  The bad news is he has a massive fish tail where his legs should be, complete with scales and fins.  Kylo refuses to call the redhead a mermaid because that would be impossible, but Kylo also doesn't know what else to call him and really doesn't know what to do with him.  When the sea creature wakes up in Kylo's bathtub, he doesn't seem happy about it.  Kylo can't say that he's very happy with the situation either.Inspired byartworkby letmeputitinyourbutt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on [letmeputitinyourbutt’s](http://letmeputitinyourbutt.tumblr.com/) [artwork](http://letmeputitinyourbutt.tumblr.com/post/160787583653/i-wanted-to-attempt-something-for-mermay-cause). I saw it last week, and I had to write something about it.

Kylo weaved in and out of traffic on his motorcycle as he headed south.  The moon was hanging overhead, but that didn’t mean the flow of traffic had lightened any.  People were headed for the coast for the start of beach season.  In all truth, this far south, the season started months ago, but people had to make things official with holidays that excused binging on food and alcohol, and lying in the sun until one’s skin was red and painful.

That wasn’t Kylo’s plan for the weekend.  Well, maybe just a little, but he wasn’t headed for cramped beaches covered in overflowing coolers.  

Kylo was headed for the one thing that made his mom’s job not the worst thing that ever happened to him.  His mother’s beach front mansion was truly paradise--in no small part due to the fact that his mother was always too busy with work to visit it.

It had its own private beach, a massive swimming pool, a villa right on the beach itself which was separate from the main house, and which Kylo had claimed as his own. Kylo had plans of spending the weekend surfing away from the crowds and enjoying the beautiful weather.  

He pulled off the highway at his exit and revved the engine.  He was in no hurry, but after hours of traffic, he just wanted to feel the wind whipping against him.  He weaved his bike along the empty road that led to the family compound.  Their neighbors were equally successful, and too occupied to actually visit their beach mansions which meant he could get away with just about anything.

Pulling into the long gated drive of the compound, Kylo drove his bike into the massive garage his mother had.  He pulled off his black helmet and rested it on the bike and shook out his thick hair.  The air was still warm despite the hour, and he was sweating under the leather jacket and helmet.  

A night swim was definitely in order.  He just needed to peel off this clothing and put his backpack in the villa.  Then he could enjoy the refreshing water on his overheated skin.

Kylo swung his leg over the bike and stood on legs that protested the long ride.  He opened the saddle bags and removed a few essentials before closing them up again.  He walked out the back of the garage and headed for the secluded path down to his house.  

One of his mother’s security team nodded to him as he stepped outside.  The man just kept walking on his usual circuit, and Kylo wasted no time continuing on his own path.  None of his mother’s help would care if he went night swimming.  Years ago, he might have tried to tempt one or two of them to join him, but these days he valued his solitude more than a little sex on the beach.

In fact, they knew better than to venture down to his villa on the beach.  It was better to completely ignore what went on in Kylo’s portion of the compound.  It was easier to claim ignorance when one was actually ignorant, and so long as Kylo wasn’t up to anything actually illegal, no one cared what he did.  He’d made it abundantly clear that he was not part of the Organa family’s political machine.  He was just along for the ride.

Kylo put the key in the lock and opened the door.  He flipped on the lights and walked into the villa.  It really only had two rooms.  There was the main room that had the bed as well as the kitchen and dining areas all in one large space.  Then there was the bathroom.  The bathroom was nothing compared to the ones up in the main house, but it had a tub that even Kylo could stretch out in and soak.  

What else could he need?  Nothing.  This was the closest thing to paradise that Kylo believed Earth had to offer.

Kylo dropped his backpack and belongings onto the sheets that had been changed since his last visit.  The maid was the only person that came down to his apartment, and she only showed up long after he’d left town in order to prepare it for his next visit.

After pulling off his boots and jacket, Kylo headed out the sliding glass doors that allowed him to watch the sun rise on the mornings that he wasn’t already out surfing by then.

He stood on the small wooden deck that stepped right down onto the sand.  The air smelled of the sea, and he took several deep breaths of it.

The beach was quiet.  It was always quiet here.  The only people authorized to be on this portion of the beach were Kylo and his family, and it was rare that any other members of his family were ever at the compound.  His uncle lived close by, but he had his own secluded spots that he used to teach surfing.

Kylo unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants as he walked through the cool sand.  He let his pants fall, and he stepped out of them as he continued.  He stretched his arms over his head and enjoyed the pop of his back and shoulders as they eased from the long ride.  His shirt came off next, pulled over his head and tossed aside without a care.  

The sand felt wonderful between his toes, and it massaged the ache of feet left too long in heavy boots.  The fresh sea air filled his lungs, and Kylo felt like he could really breathe for the first time in months.

The last thing to come off were Kylo’s boxers, but soon enough they too had fallen to the sand.  Kylo walked purposely to the water’s edge and hardly wasted a moment before he was diving into the inky waters.

Kylo dove under a wave and swam out toward the sandbar that had been there for as long as he could remember.  It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see much other than the stars above and the half moon which hung just above the horizon.  Kylo wasn’t afraid of the water.  It was a part of him, as much a part of him as his own blood.

Standing up once he had the bar beneath him, Kylo waited for a wave he could take back to shore.  There was a technique to body surfing when you could hardly see the water in front of you.  Kylo had learned as a child how to listen to the currents, how to wait for the perfect moment when the wave pulled him back just right.  

Kylo raised his arms and pushed off.  He didn’t paddle his arms, but he kicked as he let his body slope down the face of the wave.  As soon as the wave picked him up, he brought his arms down to his sides and lifted his head out of the water.

His hair clung to his face and hung in his eyes, but that didn’t take away from how exhilarating the ride felt.  The night rushed past him, and the cool water carried him like a king on his litter.

Kylo took the wave all the way off the sandbar before he ducked forward into a roll to pull out of it.  He kicked his feet and propelled himself back toward the sandbar.  As he surfaced on his back, he stared up at the stars and just breathed easily.  The cool breeze caressed his chest and legs where they breached the water.  He breathed out and just let the night pull him in.  There was nothing more peaceful than being on the water at night.

There was no one out here but him.  There were no deadlines to meet, no paparazzi to evade, no overbearing family members to ignore.  It was just him and the sea.

That was about when something made a large splash not too far from Kylo.  

Kylo stood up immediately, looking around in the dark for the thing that had made a clear slapping sound on the water.  He cursed the darkness as he looked into the night for anything that would indicate what was out here with him.

Kylo had swum with all manner of things from dolphins to stingrays and even a shark or two.  It came with the territory, but that didn’t make not knowing what was out there any less terrifying.

Another splash came from the same direction, and Kylo wasn’t sure if his imagination was playing tricks on him or if it was actually closer to him.  He wasn’t about to find out, and he started swimming for shore.  Most things in the water wanted nothing to do with humans, but that didn’t mean there weren’t opportunists.

As Kylo swam hard for shore, he could’ve sworn he felt something smooth and slippery brush his leg, but he just swam faster.  He stumbled out of the water and wheezed as he knelt in the sand, looking out at the dark water.

His eyes were adjusting to the dim light, and he could just make out something breaking the surface of the water right where he’d been body surfing.

“Fuck, close call...too close,” he muttered as he got to his feet.  His lungs burned more from the sudden adrenaline rush than the actual exertion.  It wasn’t a long swim to shore, but it had felt like a mile out there.

Kylo didn’t bother to try to determine what had been out there.  Dwelling on it would just create a fear of the water, which he had no desire to cultivate.

Instead, Kylo walked back up the beach, leaving his boxers and t-shirt where they had fallen.  He picked up his jeans only because they held his wallet, and he slipped back inside still completely naked and dripping wet.  

Normally, he would use the outdoor shower to rinse off, but he was shaking from the adrenaline crash, and he wanted a hot shower before he hit the sack.

Kylo stood under the hot water for a long time as he slowly began to relax again.  By the time his head hit the pillow, he was exhausted and looking forward to spending the morning on the waves again.  He wasn’t about to let a little thing like a possibly vicious sea creature hold him back from a session.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think most of the surfing terms in this chapter are self explanatory, but I've included some of them at the end of the chapter if you're confused.

Kylo’s alarm went off right beside his ear as his phone was wedged between his face and the pillow.  He groaned as he turned the noise off and rolled onto his back.  He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, pulling himself together.

The sun was just rising over the water, and light shined through the wall of windows across from his bed.  The golden morning light was enough to banish the cobwebs from Kylo’s mind, and he sat up slowly. He stretched his arms out and yawned as he looked around the room.

Everything was neat, unlike how he’d left it the last time he’d been in town.  His clothes no longer littered the floor.  The mysterious stain was no longer noticeable in the carpet.  There weren’t any dishes in the sink.  Basically, it looked like the picture perfect getaway, like something out of a travel brochure.

Kylo was tempted to mess it up just because the order made him itch, but the ocean was calling him.  He could hear the waves crashing on the beach through the screen door, and he wanted to be out there.  

He got off the bed and stretched slowly.  He clasped his fingers behind his back and lifted his arms as far as they’d go.  He bent forward until he could rest his palms on the carpet.  He dropped to the floor and did some quick pushups to wake his body up.  His muscles woke up faster than his mind did, prepared for a sunrise session.

Lying on his stomach when he was finished, he gave one more push upward and thrust himself up into a crouch.  He slowly rose to his feet and walked over to the dresser.  The top drawer on the right side was full of board shorts.  Most of them he’d never wear—tropical prints his mother thought were stylish.  He opted for a plain black pair with a tasteful red stripe going down the side.  

Kylo opened the sliding screen door and stepped outside before closing it again.  It would be good to air out the house even if it was going to be a hot day.  He went around the side of the villa where he’d built a shed against the house for all of his boards.  He put the combination into the lock on the door and went inside.  

The surf wasn’t huge this morning, so he went with a longer board. He was in the mood for a relaxing session.  Long, smooth rides until the swell built later in the day as the tide and winds shifted.

Kylo carried the board over to the outdoor shower, which was just a shower head attached to the side of the house.  Leia had told him that she planned to enclose it, but Kylo didn’t really care.  No one was ever around to watch him shower out here, and he really just used it to rinse the salt off.  It wasn’t like he was giving his balls a good scrub.

He rinsed the dust that had built up over the winter off the board then carried it down to the water.  He laid it in the sand and waxed it up as he looked out at the water.

The waves were breaking out far, so the tide had to be fairly low.  Kylo didn’t care one way or the other.  He’d surf anything right now.  He just wanted a board beneath him and the sun on his skin.

Once the board was waxed up, he tucked the bar into his shorts’ pocket and wrapped the leash around his ankle.  He lifted his board and tucked it beneath his arm as he waded into the water.

Kylo launched himself onto the board and over a wave and began paddling out.  The waves were hardly big enough to warrant a duck dive, but he pushed the front end of his board under as he knelt anyway.  He popped up on the other side of the white water and paddled hard for the break.

He ducked a few more waves before he finally settled beyond the break.  He sat up and balanced on his board as he faced the horizon. The sun painted the water in glistening gold that left Kylo squinting as he raised his hand to block the sun.  

Kylo didn’t catch a wave for the first twenty minutes.  Instead, he sat on his board and meditated.  The water rocked his board gently, and the wind kept his skin cool enough in the morning sun.  The world beyond the shoreline faded away, and Kylo found his center.

Growing up, his uncle Luke had been the one to teach him how to surf. The man’s methods hadn’t been run of the mill, and he’d always made Kylo meditate out on the water.  He insisted that surfing was more than catching waves.  It was a religion.  If you couldn’t find your center and your peace when the ocean was glass, then you’d never appreciate the raw power of the ocean at its angriest.

Kylo didn’t prescribe to a lot of his uncle’s teachings, but sitting out on the flat water was one of his personal pleasures in life.

When he was ready, he waited for a wave before turning his board and lying on it again as be began to paddle.  His strong arms cut through the water, and he pulled himself forward until the wave began doing it for him.

Kylo brought his palms to the deck of the board and pushed himself up and crouched on it as he caught the wave.  He cut his board at an angle as he fully stood, and he cautiously walked toward the nose before stepping back again for more control.  It was a long gentle ride, but he squeezed every last bit out of it as he dug the rail in and rode the face of the wave.

Pulling back, Kylo rode up and over the wave as it dwindled toward the shore.  He sank back down and began to paddle out again.  He caught a few more small waves as the sun continued to rise over the beach. He’d hardly broken a sweat after an hour on the water, but he could feel the familiar ache in his muscles.  He hadn’t used them like this in months, and he knew tomorrow would bring with it the aches of a good day on the water.

Kylo laid flat on his board, just soaking up the sun.  The surf was building and the curl was getting more suitable for his shorter boards. He was just considering paddling in and swapping boards when he saw a fin in the water about a hundred yards away.  

Kylo cursed as he headed for the shore.  However, as he tried to keep eyes on the possible predator as well as the shore, he noticed something human shaped half washed ashore aways down the beach. Kylo paddled harder.  

No one was supposed to be on this beach.  They actually had fences up to prevent people from accidentally stumbling into the property.  It kept out most of the photographers and groupies, but sometimes people weren’t deterred.  

From what Kylo could tell, the shark was slowly headed in the person’s direction.

“Fuck, I hope it’s too shallow,” he said, using a wave to give him a boost to shore.  He jumped off his board and tugged off the leash.  He started to run for the man, but thought better of it and grabbed his board as the shark continued its approach.

The shark was in the shallows by the time Kylo got there, and the thing looked like a Bull.  Kylo lifted his board and hurled it like a harpoon right at the shark as he rushed for the man who was lying motionless in the surf.  The board was enough to distract and ward off the shark for a moment, but Kylo didn’t doubt it would circle around again.

“Please don’t be dead.  I can’t afford that kind of bad press,” Kylo muttered as he turned to the man.  He had bright ginger hair, but his face was turned away from Kylo, and Kylo couldn’t see if his chest was moving either from this angle.

Kylo grabbed the man beneath the arms and pulled him ashore...however what came ashore wasn’t human at all.  Kylo stared down at the man once he was several feet from the water.

At first, Kylo thought another shark or massive creature had gotten to the man first, but the longer he looked the less it made sense.  From the waist up, a normal man lie on the sand.  However, just below his navel—or what should have been his navel as he had no belly button to speak of—bright orange scales covered where his legs should have been.  There were white markings like stripes over the tail and more than a dozen protrusions that came out of it.  Not to mention there were fins—two fan-like ones that lay limp in the sand.

“What the hell?  Did you swim away from a movie set?” Kylo asked, moving down the man’s body toward what had to be a very convincing prosthetic.

Kylo forced himself not to gawk.  Instead, he shifted the man onto his back and checked for breathing.  Kylo was relieved to find the man’s chest rose and fell, though nothing seemed to rouse him.

That could’ve been due to the bite mark along the man’s side.  The shark had clearly had a taste of him before Kylo had seen him. While nothing was missing, the teeth marks made a half moon over the man’s belly and hip.  It bled sluggishly, and Kylo knew the chance of infection was high if he stayed there in the sand for any length of time.

Kylo inspected the man’s body, trying to determine if he could remove the tail before carrying the man inside.  He ran his fingers along the man’s side and over his hip, but he couldn’t feel a seam between skin and scale.  The scales actually seemed to almost grow out of the skin like hairs.  The first row was embedded beneath the skin’s surface.

It was nothing Kylo had ever seen before, and Kylo had seen his share of weird things.  For his twenty-first birthday, his friends had hired a stripper with an extra set of breasts that pretty much lactated on demand.  He would likely never live down the photos that had leaked to the press of him sucking on her breast as she gave him a lapdance. However, that hadn’t been this weird.  He could call that a quirk of biology.  Most other mammals had more than two breasts, but Kylo couldn’t name a single creature that looked like a man but had the tail of a fish.

Okay, he could, but mermaids were fictional.

Kylo cursed to himself as he tried to lift the surprisingly heavy man-creature—he would not call him a fucking merman, no fucking way; there was a reasonable explanation for this which he would get as soon as the guy woke up.  The man didn’t look like he should’ve weighed much at all with how thin he was, but his tail was long and thick, and it threw everything off balance.  

Kylo wasn’t sure how to lift the thing without getting stabbed by the spikes protruding from it.  They didn’t look like they’d feel very pleasant.  He also didn’t want to further injure the man.

Eventually, Kylo threw his hands up and grabbed him beneath the arms again and dragged him up the beach.  It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.

The shark was still swimming close to the shore, and Kylo tried not to lament his lost surfing weekend.  If this ‘guy’ was no longer floating in the water, maybe the shark would go away.  Then again, if this guy died, Kylo would have much bigger problems than the shark.  He imagined having to call the police and explain why there was a dead fish-man on his property.  It would be the four breasted stripper all over again.  He could see the headline now.

_Governor’s Wayward Son Hosts Fatal, Sea Creature Sex Orgy At Governor’s Mansion_

“Don’t fucking die on me, or I’m throwing you back to the shark,” Kylo told the unconscious man as he dragged him into the house.  

The housekeeper was going to be furious when she got a look at the sand and blood Kylo had just dragged into the house, but he was out of other options.  Had the man not been wearing the most ridiculous tail on earth, Kylo could have simply carried the man inside.  Instead, he was forced to drag him and all his fins like some sort of criminal disposing of a body.

Kylo cringed as the tail caught on the bedspread as he dragged him past the bed.  It pulled it off the end of the bed and also caught the edge of one of the side tables in the living area and knocked it over.  Thankfully, the lamp didn’t break as it hit the carpet.  

Stupid tail.

Kylo manhandled the man into the massive bathtub once they got to the bathroom.  He hoisted up the man’s chest and stepped into the tub until some of the tail followed.  He propped the man against the side, but the tub was not equipped for lengthy tails, and half of it spilled over onto the floor.

“Just don’t bleed out yet,” Kylo told the still unconscious man as he ran out of the house again.  He grabbed a bucket from the shed and went down to the water.  He questioned why he was getting seawater for the man when he _had_ to be wearing a fake tail.  It couldn’t possibly be real.

Still, he ran and collected water from the surf then ran back.  He did this nearly a dozen times before there was enough water in the tub that at least part of the man was submerged.  

Kylo used a sponge to soak up some of the water and wet the man’s tail before taking a look at the bite.  Kylo was blown away by how beautiful that tail was as he carefully blotted it with seawater.  The orange and white stripes were so vibrant, and as he wet the scales they almost shimmered.  

The tail couldn’t be real, but Kylo was pretty sure he’d never seen anything so beautiful.  Even the nasty looking spines that poked out of the thing were fascinating.  

Kylo had to force himself not to become distracted as he tended to the man’s injuries.  Beautiful tail or not, Kylo couldn’t afford to have a dead man in his bathtub.

The wound itself was fairly extensive.  The man definitely needed medical attention, but once again Kylo couldn’t call the paramedics for a man in a fish suit. The press would be a nightmare.  It didn’t matter that Kylo didn’t know who the hell the man was.  The press would find a way to connect him.

So, Kylo went searching for the expensive medical kit he’d lifted from his ill-advised stint in the Army.  Kylo carried it into the bathroom and sat down beside the tub.  He carefully inspected the bite on the front side of the man, but he knew there was a matching set on his back. The man was lucky to still be breathing and in one piece.  

Kylo disinfected each of the bites, cleaning away sand and debris before using iodine on the wounds themselves.  Several needed stitches, and Kylo hoped he had the proper tools in the kit.  It wasn’t like he’d paid much attention to what was in it when he walked off with it.  He just wanted to give the Army one last fuck you.

Bruises were starting to bloom on the man’s skin as well.  He had to have be bitten a while ago for the bruising to be this intense by now.  Kylo couldn’t even give the man anything for the pain he would surely be in when he woke.  Who knew if the guy was allergic.  

Kylo cursed everything as he tore through the pack to find the suturing equipment.  He gave the worst of the tooth marks a few stitches to hold them closed, and he tried not to think about the last time he’d had to stitch someone together on the fly.

When he was finished, he maneuvered the man forward and got behind him to do the same to his back.  The tub was not big enough for the both of them, and Kylo could not be blamed if he wasn’t as thorough as he would’ve liked to be.  

There was a tooth still lodged in the man’s skin, just above his hip, and Kylo cringed as he removed it and watched the wound began to ooze fresh blood.  He cleaned it and staunched the flow before putting several stitches in it.

When all was done, Kylo collapsed on the tile floor beside and tub and just stared at the man he’d rescued.  The man’s face was peaceful in sleep, and he had magnificently plump lips.  His cheeks were wan and his expression drawn, but he was quite striking.  And then there was that tail that spilled over the side of the tub in a gorgeous waterfall of vibrant scales.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with you?” Kylo asked quietly, staring at the tail still hanging out of his tub and making a puddle on the tile floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glossary:  
> Nose- the front end of the surfboard (the first 12-18 inches of the board)  
> Rail- the side of the the board.  
> Deck- the top of the board  
> Tail- the back end of the board  
> Wax (surf wax)- what you put on the deck of your board to give you traction so you don't slip right off  
> Duck dive- pretty much how it's explained above. Diving under a wave by pushing the rails of the board under then once submerged using your knee to push the board under the roll of the wave, so you pop up the other side.


	3. Chapter 3

Hux woke with the mother of all headaches.  It felt like his brain had be thrown from one side of his skull to the other repeatedly until liquified.  It was unpleasant to say the least, but it didn’t compare to the fire burning in his side.  There was also the strange discomfort in his chest and on his skin.

Hux opened his eyes slowly, but he had to close them immediately as blinding light assaulted them.  He tried not to hiss at the painful light, but a small one eked out which led to the realization that he was not in the water.

Cursing the shark that did this to him, Hux tried not to panic.  He opened his eyes just enough to see what was right around him.  It could only be described as Hell.  Perhaps he had died, and this was his punishment.  However, the pain he felt led him to believe this was not the afterlife.

Hux was trapped in a stone box of some sort.  The smooth walls looked hard to climb, and the pattern on them was...tasteless.  Moving his head very slowly in case he was being observed by his captor, Hux looked outside the box.  

Trophies.  There were metal gadgets everywhere.  Ugly baubles attached to wooden boards.  Weird arched metal attached to the top of the wood and stone box.  There was one in the stone box he was in as well.

And the merfolk.  Had they turned some of his young relatives to stone and placed them on the box? One held a small white prism and the other a tiny bristled staff.  Is that what they had planned for him?

Hux suddenly wished the shark had finished the job.  He had done nothing to deserve this humiliating and painful end.  He had not lured fishermen to their fates for thirty years just to be forced ashore to use his secondary lungs.  He did not deserve to die in a stone box as his fins dried out.

“You’re awake, thank god.  I thought you were going to die in here and leave me with a huge mess,” a voice said from beside him.  Hux’s whole body convulsed from the shock of it.  How hadn’t he noticed the form beside him?  Was he truly so weak?  And to have been bested by a mouth breather, there was too much shame to account for.

“You’re safe.  I couldn’t get that tail off you, but now that you’re awake, you can show me—”

“I won’t let you have it!  Kill me if you must, but I won’t give you a souvenir so easily!” Hux hissed at him.  It had been a long time since he used his tongue for speech, and the words felt clumsy as he spoke them.

Hux turned his body to face his captor, and he was struck by the man’s wide brown eyes and long nose.  He wore a look of surprise as they stared at each other.  

“I’m just trying to help.  That thing can’t be comfortable,” the man said, now staring at Hux’s tail.  It was incredibly rude.  One simply did not go swimming around staring at others’ scales.  Next he’d be critiquing Hux’s marking like he had any knowledge of the subject.  

Hell.  That was exactly what this was.  Dry land was Hell.  All of those stories he’d been told as a child were true, and now Hux was living them.  This man was going to filet him for his tail, and Hux wouldn’t even get to have his revenge on that stupid shark.

“You’re safe.  I found you in the surf.  That shark was coming back to finish what it started, but I threw my surfboard at it so I could pull you out,” the mouth breather said, reaching forward as though he dared to touch Hux.

“Do not touch me,” Hux growled, lashing out with his clawed hand.

The man pulled back quickly, managing to avoid getting scratched.  It served him right.  Hux wasn’t above clawing and biting his way out of here.  

“Okay, no touching,” it said. 

Hux wasn’t exactly sure how mouth breathers worked.  He’d killed his fair share, but what they were—other than a nuisance—was beyond him.  Sometimes they wore colorful things over their skin, but other times there didn’t.  Those were the times it got confusing.  Some of them had a spike, but only one of them and it looked nothing like Hux’s.  It did seem venomous though, so Hux had kept his distance.  Others, however, had no such protrusion.  And they all had hair all over themselves.  It was truly disgusting.

“Why have you trapped me?” Hux demanded.

“Trapped you?”  The mouth breather sounded confused. Surely, it didn’t think that it was helping Hux.  What on earth threatened to steal his scales while helping him?

“Yes, you’ve clearly trapped me in some sort of box with old sea water, and now you are threatening to cut off my tail,” Hux told him, trying to pull his tail close to him, but it hurt too much.

“You mean the bath tub?  You aren’t trapped.  It’s...it’s a bathtub…”

“What above and below is a bathtub?” Hux retorted.

The mouth breather looked like he was going to say something not particularly kind, but his eyes just widened further.  “You’ve never seen a bathtub?”

“Of course not!”

Now, it was squinting at him as though searching for a lie.  The man was infuriatingly easy to read.  He could see every look of ignorance and skepticism in real time.

“And what the hell do you mean I’m trying to steal your tail?”

“You threatened to cut it off!”

“I did no such thing.  I said take it off because it isn’t real.”

“Of course, it’s real.  I have never been so insulted in my life…”

“How can it be real?  Mermaids don’t exist,” the mouth breather insisted.

“I will have you know that I am a merman, you insignificant mouth breather.  I come from a long line of important Merfolk, and I am not be trifled with.  Certainly not to be thrown haphazardly in a  _ bathtub _ ,” Hux insisted.

“A merman...that tail is…” the mouth breather was getting uncomfortably close again as though mesmerized by his scales.  

“Step back,” Hux told him, manually lifting one of his spines as he couldn’t get them to rise on their own.  He held it out like one of the swords he found in old vessels.

The mouth breather sat back again.  Hux studied the strange creature, and a realization came to him.   

“You were the creature on the sandbar last night,” Hux said, looking the thing up and down.  It had dark hair that fell just above its shoulders.  It was broad, much more muscular in the chest than Hux himself. Like all mouth breathers that Hux had come into contact with, it had two weird fins where a tail should be.  It also wore something over its hips that it hadn’t last night, so Hux couldn’t see the spike that he’d nearly brushed against as he swam under the creature.  

He’d been tempted to drown it then, perhaps he should’ve. Instead, he’d let himself be fascinated by the creature.  He’d watched it climb onto the beach and sit in the sand before moving away on those fins.  The strange fascination was to blame for the shark attack.  He shouldn’t have stayed so close to the shore last night.  The reef or the caves were the safest place for his kind, but he’d swum along the bar as though the creature would return after the fright he’d given it.

It was close to dawn when the shark had appeared almost out of nowhere, charging him and burying its teeth in him before he could retreat.  Hux had fought tooth and nail to free himself, clawing at the shark’s tough skin and finally hammering at its nose until it let him go.

He’d swum away, but he was too far from the reef.  He was losing blood, and the fight itself had left him bruised on top of the bites.  He didn’t know how long he’d managed to swim before falling unconscious, but it couldn’t have been long if this creature had found him.

“That was you that was splashing?  You scared the shit out of me,” the thing said.

“Good.” At least he could still strike fear into something.

“If—I can’t believe I’m going to say this—if you’re really a merman, how do you speak English?” 

“We learn from you creatures.  You sort never shut up when you swim or go...boat-ling.”

“Boating.”

“Such a distasteful activity.  You’re lucky we don’t drown you all,” Hux huffed.

“So you learned our language just from listening to us?”

“As I said, you have the unfortunate habit of speaking constantly.  You haven’t stopped since I awoke,” Hux told him sharply.  Now, he was giving away his people’s secrets.  He’d been tortured before and never given away for much.  Why were his lips betraying him now, and to a mouth breather of all things?

“But you don’t know what a bathtub is…”

“Do you often bring your stone prisons to the ocean?”

“Fair point.”

“I want to go back.”

The creature sighed.  Hux could tell he wasn’t going to like what it was going to tell him.

“You’re hurt badly.  I had to stitch up your side, which by the way, brought back a lot of memories from the army that I didn’t feel like dealing with. Anyway, I don’t think it’s safe for you to go back in there.  That shark has been circling around for hours now.  Every time I get more water, I see that fin,” the thing had the sense to sound sad about it.

“So, you want me to sit in this bathtub and die of dehydration.”

“I’ve been keeping your scales wet…”

“You’ve touched my scales?” Hux jerked, inspecting his body for any sign that the creature had done him further harm, but there was nothing.  In fact, his scales seemed to be the least damaged part of him.

“With a sponge soaked in sea water, just to keep them wet…”

Hux sighed.  This was all too much.

“What can I call you?  Do you have a name?” the thing asked him, looking too earnest for Hux’s taste.

“Your mouth breather tongue would never be able to pronounce my name,” Hux told him.

“Give me a try anyway.”

Hux narrowed his eyes.  “Hux.”

“Hux?” the thing said it with no difficulty whatsoever, and that was possibly the biggest insult of all.  If such a common land creature could say his regal name, then what humiliation was there left for Hux to face?

“And what are you called, mouth breather?” Hux sneered.

“First of all, I’m a human or a person, not a mouth breather.  See these two holes…” the human, pointed to the holes in its nose, much the same as the ones Hux had.  “...I breathe through those, not my mouth.  And my name is Kylo.”

“Ky-lo,” Hux tested it out.  It was a strange name, nothing like the Johns, Michaels, or Annes he listened to on their boats.

“That’s it.  So, you really live in the ocean,” Kylo said, sitting back against the wooden box and stretching his long flippers out toward Hux.

“Where else would I live?” Hux retorted.

Kylo smiled, but he wasn’t really looking at Hux, instead, his eyes were trained on Hux’s tail again.

“Why are you so fascinated with my tail?”

“Other than the fact that you’re a real, live merman with a four foot tail where your legs should be?” Kylo asked.

“I am not staring at your strange flippers.”

“They’re legs, and knock yourself out if you want to.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re loss.  I’ve got nice legs,” Kylo told him.

“They are covered in hair and near useless in the water.  Not exactly a thrilling discovery.”

Kylo didn’t seem to take offense to the insult.  That only made Hux angrier.

“You should rest.  I’ll get you some more water.  What do you eat?  You’ve got to be hungry,” Kylo asked.

“Ignorant humans,” Hux snapped.

“I don’t have any of those on hand.  Actually, I do, but my mother will kill me if I feed you her security team.  How about fish?  I can ask someone to go to the supermarket and get you some salmon or crabcakes…”

Hux made a gagging noise at the sound of the words coming out of the human’s mouth.  

“You’re one of those eat local freaks, huh?” 

“I would rather starve than eat a ‘crab cake.’”  Truly it sounded like a disease one might get from unsanitary coves.  Hux would not subject himself to such a thing.

“Right.  Just hang tight.  I’ll be back soon,” Kylo told him, getting up on his fins and leaving the prison.

Hux looked around himself and cringed.  This couldn’t be happening.  Of all the ways to go out, surely this was worse than any he could’ve imagined.  Looking around, he tried to figure out a way to free himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters aren't going to be daily from here out, but I'm hoping to have another chapter up by the end of the week.


End file.
